There are thousands
of search engines--or similar types of entities, including online Yellow
Pages, newsgroups and Internet discussion groups--to choose from today.
Yahoo!, Infoseek, Excite and Lycos are on the short list of the most popular
search engines and directories. Although it's possible to get lost in the
shuffle of these large search engines, to reach as many people as possible,
the major search engines are the most attractive option.

These sites are
visited by millions of users every month. According to Planet Ocean Communications,
an Internet marketing company in Captain Cook, Hawaii, more than 95 percent
of all people on the Web use only eight search engines. The major search
engines serve a purpose, but don't overlook site-specific search engines.

You can
submit your Web store address to these sites yourself by contacting the
search engine directly, but this can become time-consuming. Two good alternatives
are to use a promotion software package or hire a service company to perform
this task for you.

PowerSolution's
SitePromoter (http://www.sitepromoter.com)
submits your site to 150 search engines, while CyberSleuth Internet Services'
Net Submitter Professional (http://www.cyber-sleuth.com/nsp)
not only offers fully automated submission to hundreds of search engines
and directories but also offers semiautomated support for hundreds of other
submission sites. These products cost less than $100.

As for online
services, The Central Registry (http://www.centralregistry.com)
submits your site to 620 resources that include search engines and online
Yellow Pages. NetCreations' PostMaster URL Announcement Service (http://www.netcreations.com)
is an automated Web service that "announces" your site to 400 search engines
as well as other directory sources and media organizations. There's also
LinkExchange's Submit It! (http://www.submit-it.com)
service. It lists your site on more than 400 search engines and has a PositionAgent
that monitors your site's rankings on major search engines and provides
you with weekly e-mail reports on your position.

If your site is
listed with a few search engines but doesn't get a good ranking during
searches, try FirstPlace Software Inc.'s WebPosition Analyzer (http://www.webposition.com).
This software queries and analyzes the quality of your site's search returns
on most major search engines and offers suggestions for improving your
rankings.

Another
possibility is The WardGroup (http://www.thewardgroup.com),
which can determine if you're positioned well on the search engines and
provide suggestions on how to improve your searchability factor, or WebPromote
(http://www.webpromote.com), which
says it can perform each directory submission on an individual basis. Prices
for these services vary greatly--from about $249 for one URL submission
to $3,000 for a full-fledged promotional campaign. Most of these software
and service companies also ensure your site is listed correctly and with
the right types of search engines. Submit It!, for example, has an extensive
roster of suggested specialty sites that vary by product or service group.

Many of
these products and services submit your site to "announce" sites and special-selection
sites, which are designed to promote new sites and relaunches. Some, such
as http://www.whatsnew.com, are general
in nature, but there are many more that cater to particular industries,
consumers or regions of the country.

Special-selection
sites are generally site-of-the-day sites. According to Cool Site of the
Day (http://www.coolsiteoftheday.com),
the premiere special-selection site, it gets thousands of visitors each
day.